Tuesday 7 March 2023

Wylye Coyote


To the legendary grayling river, the Wylye, with James (massive thanks to Mike for inviting us) and I was really looking forward to this! A beautiful little river, not easy fishing, but I knew this was PB territory if I could just tempt these shy ladies of the stream.

But my morning seemed to be a string of disasters; tangles, line breaks and culminating in me standing on a bank that collapsed leaving me dangling over 10 foot of water holding on to two bunches of stinging nettles to save myself from an early bath!

In the afternoon I got into my rhythm, stick 'n' pin, 15 foot float rod, size 18 hook and maggots for bait. Three or four free samples per cast and holding the float back as much as I dared in the deep runs - made harder in the cold downstream wind but I started to find fish...

Over the course of the day I landed 21 grayling, including five over the magic two pound mark; 2lb 0oz, 2lb 4oz, 2lb 4oz, 2lb 6oz and a new PB of 2lb 12oz - a beautiful battleship grey monster. We fished until we couldn't see the floats - a red letter day for sure!

We had a bit of a camera nightmare - James leaving his memory card at home and my camera not wanting to play - I had to wait until I got home to see if we had photos of our fish. Phew! My new PB and James' best of the season were there - my 2lb 12oz beauty below.


10 comments:

  1. Well done, that is a huge fish. They say perch look big, I think a big grayling might have the edge. The bank experience gives rise to a true description of "dangling", glad all's well that ends well!

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    1. Cheers Adam. They look massive in the water with that big fin flared up - fantastic looking fish. Yeah, popped down the river for a bit of dangling!

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  2. Replies
    1. Yeah, won’t forget that day in a hurry - a day of two halves; disasters and elation!

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  3. And there was me hoping to see a convincing painting of a road tunnel. Ah well, an enormous grayling is a decent second best ;o)

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    1. You might have seen a photo of me dangling over the river if James’ camera was working (he was there but the wrong side of the fence to help). We’ll both just have to settle for a photo of a monster grayling :-)

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  4. Great story and nice photos of a magnificent fish. Can't appreciate successes if you're not made to work for the reward. Well done..

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    1. Cheers, it was hard work - but I didn’t make things easy for myself - I managed to hook and loose my kit on the only car tyre in an otherwise pristine river - among a number of other errors. Turned out pretty good though!

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  5. Monster, sounds a brilliant day !! and what a fish

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    1. Was a cracking day once I’d sorted myself out, and a beautiful fish - I was surprised when it surfaced and wasn’t a barbel :-)

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